Alana is a multi- and inter-disciplinary artist and writer, writing theory of art about the role and value of art in society from the perspective of a contemporary practitioner.
Alana is a tutor in painting, a supervisor of doctoral researchers and a researcher.
She has been teaching in various settings, including as part of the initial team at Tate Modern from 2000, innovating new and radical approaches to pedagogy of visual art. She left Tate Modern in 2004 to pursue doctoral research in ‘art as a democratic act’ in both art history and fine art practice. Successful completion of her doctorate was followed by three consecutive post-doctoral research posts. The first two were with the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the first funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council and the second by the European Research Council. The third was as Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, which she left to come to RCA.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Gallery
More information
Research interests
Since studying a BA in painting with modules in philosophy, Alana has always combined theory with practice. Today, Alana continues to conduct research as an artist and as a theorist. She has a long-term interest in the legacies of colonialism which has culminated in various art interventions into museum contexts and other sites. She writes academic books and journal articles about the role and value of art in society. Most recently, Alana developed methods to research diversity, ecology and evolution, including co-authoring a book with lab scientist, Naomi Forrester-Soto, and linguist, Saskia Kersten. She often works in participatory and collaborative art practices, working with communities and academics as equals.
Practice
Alana makes art using a wide range of media, including painting, novel-writing, collaborative durational projects, curating, live art, play-writing and sound art. She chooses her medium according to the needs of the artistic investigation, to address specific questions, such as belonging and knowledge. Her approach to making art is most often site-specific and interventionist.
She instigated various radical exhibitions and critical interventions as director of terra incognita in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in a 9-year participatory, durational artwork called ‘The Field’, located in a 13-acre ancient woodland in Essex. Alana’s artwork is in the collections of Henry Moore Institute Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joan Flasch collection (SAIC) Brooklyn Museum, Yale University, and University of Cambridge (Haddon Library) as well as private collections.
Research funding
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - University of Hertfordshire Impact Acceleration Grant 2023 (£7,500)
AHRC Network Grant 2021-22 co-investigator (£30,000)
European Research Council 2013-2018 senior researcher (€5M) with Prof Nicholas Thomas (PI)
AHRC Fellowship 2009 - 2014 principal investigator (£250,000)
Arts Council England project funding 2013 (£10,000)
Economic and Social Research Council project funding 2010 (£5,000)
Arts and Humanities Research Board full studentship 2005-2008 (Doctoral Fellowship)
Awards
Kaleid Best Books 2014 for ‘The Fork’s Tale, as Narrated by Itself’ LemonMelon
Current and recent projects
People and Stuff: A Subversive Collaboration
Site-specific large-scale painting at Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (2023-25)
Investigating visual languages that embody connections between people, deep time and the geographies of the collections of archaeological artefacts, working with communities, the public and academics. Funded by AHRC Impact Accelerator Grant University of Hertfordshire.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
2024/5 (upcoming)
Evolution: Not Just a Metaphor – a conversation between an artist and a scientist co-authored by Naomi Forrester-Soto, with contributions from Saskia Kersten (Oxford University Press, TBC)
2022
‘What the World Needs Now is Artists and Designers Engaged with Science: Introduction’, Writing Visual Culture. Vol 10
2020
Between Discipline and a Hard Place: The Value of Contemporary Art (Bloomsbury)
2019
’Questions of Belonging’ chapter in Matters of Belonging: Ethnographic Museums in a Changing Europe. Modest, W., Thomas, N., Prlic, D. & Augustat, C. (eds.). Leiden: Sidestone Press
2018
’In Process’ chapter in Pacific Presences: Oceanic art and European Museums. Thomas, N., Carreau, L., Clarke, A., Lilje, E. & Jelinek, A. (eds.). Leiden: Sidestone Press, Vol. 2.
’Knowing and Not Knowing’ chapter in Pacific Presences: Oceanic art and European Museums. Thomas, N., Carreau, L., Clarke, A., Lilje, E. & Jelinek, A. (eds.). Leiden: Sidestone Press, Vol. 2.
’Corporate Censorship’, chapter in Censoring Art: Silencing the Artwork, Eds R. Kennedy and R. coulter, London, I.B Tauris
’Gender and the Visual Arts: An Anthropological and Art Historical View’, International Encylopedia of Anthropology, Wiley
2017
‘Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus): Prunus laurocerasus and Other Species’, chapter in Botanical Drift, Eds K. von Zinnenburg Carroll, P. Lange-Berndt, Berlin, Sternberg Press
2016
‘An artist’s response to an anthropological perspective (Grimshaw and Ravetz), Journal of European Social Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell Vol 24, No 2, Nov
‘The screen, the mouse, the air and I’, New Existentialism, Fucking Good Art 35
2015
‘A Response to the Issues Raised in the Special Ethics Edition’, Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, Taylor and Francis
2014
The Fork’s Tale, as narrated by Itself, London, LemonMelon
‘Introduction and Reply to Responses to This is Not Art’, Guest-editor, Journal of Visual Art Practice, Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
2013
This is not art: activism and other not-art, London, IB Tauris
‘The Field: An Art Experiment in Levinasian Ethics’, Living Beings: Perspectives on Interspecies Engagements, London, Bloomsbury
2012
‘Art in Museums: an artist’s response — Tall Stories: Cannibal Forks (2010) at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge’, Journal of Museum Ethnography, No25, Oxford
‘Art, Activism, Recuperation’, Art, Activism & Recuperation, Concept Store series 3, Spring, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
2007
Ohm's Law, a novel,
published with images by Cornford + Cross, <1% series terra incognita, London (second edition 2009)
External collaborations and activities
Board of Directors: Numbi Arts CIC (2018-ongoing)
Board of Directors: Idle Women CIC (2017-ongoing)
Board of Trustees: Somali Museum UK Charity (2021-ongoing)
Editor for the Arts and Humanities, Cogent, an online peer-reviewed journal (2019-ongoing)
Expert Assessor for Creative Europe Grants (2018-ongoing)
Grant Assessor AHRC (2020-ongoing)